Budget funds digital transformation of Southern health system

NEWS - eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth 

Budget 2022 has allocated $225 million over ten years to fund the digital transformation of the Southern region’s health system.

This is split into $161m in capital and $64m in operating costs, with $155m available in the next four years.

It will fund the digital infrastructure needed to support the new Dunedin hospital, as well as deliver digital solutions across the wider Southern health system including the Southland and Lakes District hospitals, and rural trust hospitals.

“Investment through this initiative will contribute to a wide range of digital capabilities including care delivery, care administration and operations, support services, enterprise functions, engagement channels, interoperability, data insights and foundational technology infrastructure,” the Ministry of Health website says.

The new 421-bed Dunedin Hospital, due to open in 2025, is the largest ever health infrastructure project in the country.

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An Indicative Business Case to fund the digital transformation of the hospital was approved in 2021 and a Detailed Business Case was submitted to the Ministry of Health in April. The business case will go to the Capital Investment Committee at the end of May, prior to seeking Ministerial sign-off.

Southern DHB chief digital officer Patrick Ng said in a column for eHealthNews in February 2022, that the business case presented three key options; a minimum viable product, digitisation of the new Dunedin Hospital, and digital transformation of the Southern Health System.

Ng said clinical digital solutions would be likely to include consumer engagement portals, a contemporary electronic health record - which captures source data in useable data fields - and master scheduling tools.

“We would also implement digital solutions which would enable greater data insights,” he said.

Ng said the investment in digital solutions would be used to improve equity outcomes for Māori, Pasifika and rural populations and that solutions would make it easier and more efficient for front line clinicians to access the information they need when they need it.

The DHB has two parallel digital workstreams, one for infrastructure and one for digital solutions.

The digital solutions workstream is being led by the DHB, and the DHB will appoint a ‘digital infrastructure delivery partner’ to lead digital infrastructure implementation.

Four companies; civil engineering consultancy WSP, smart building specialist Torque IP, developer Lendlease, and NZ IT specialist Inde Technology have been appointed to lead the initial design phase for digital infrastructure and the DHB is expected to go to tender for a digital infrastructure delivery partner around the middle of this year.



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